Articles
Fausto Coppi
Today, the 15th September 2019 would have been the 100th Birthday of one of the greatest Road Cyclists of the 20th Century. Angelo Fausto Coppi was the dominant road racing cyclist just after the Second World War. He was an all-round cyclist, excelling at all levels,...
Tour de France 2019
The 2019 Tour de France was the 106th edition of the world’s most famous cycling race. The 3,365.8 km (2,091 ml) long race consisted of 21 stages, starting in the Belgian capital of Brussels on 6 July, before racing through France and finishing with a mad sprint on...
A Good Read #2
Another book turned up for my July Birthday…”Magic Spanner – The world of cycling according to Carlton Kirby”. Carlton Kirby has been a cycling commentator for nearly 30 years. He works for Eurosport and has commentated on the Tour de France for as long as I can...
Hydration – Water – Nature’s Health Drink
Water is our body's vital fuel, a health drink from Mother Nature. It is calorie-free, inexpensive and available everywhere. Yet few people follow the old fashioned advice to drink eight glasses of water a day. Most people drink when they are thirsty, but the drink...
Interactive Trainer
Turbo Trainer – Elite Drivo II The most accurate interactive home trainer in the world – so reads the promotional material for the Elite Drivo 2 Turbo Trainer. Drivo II’s colour catches your eye right away - black, sporty and aggressive just like its core, with an...
Kickstarter Successful Projects #1
3 Successful Kickstarter Projects: I first became involved with Kickstarter early in 2016, when I saw a social media post regarding a new ‘smart’ bike, which was being launched via the Kickstarter platform. Over the last few of years, I have pledged to support a...
2019 Sock Length
The 2019 Pro Cycling Season has well and truly started with the running of the “Tour Down Under” from Adelaide in South Australia. It will continue throughout the year ending sometime at the end of October, usually with the “Presidential Tour of Turkey”. What is this...
A Good Read #1
I love a good book, especially thrillers / detective stories. I also enjoy a good cycling book. This year, I found two ‘Good Reads’ under the Christmas Tree (Dec 2018), both by the acclaimed author William Fotheringham. The first was "Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike" and...
Tour de Zwift 2019
Tour de Zwift The Tour De Zwift is an annual cycling event held on the Zwift gaming platform, it is also their biggest event in terms of numbers participating. It is an epic 9-stage event across all 5 Zwift worlds. Open to the entire community, the Tour is a...
New Year Resolutions
An Easy New Year’s Resolution It is that time of year again… Everybody is making New Year Resolutions…ones that you know will last the best part of January, if you are lucky. You know the ones… Lose some weight; Moderate any drinking and that annual favourite – Get...
Team Sky
Team Sky On the 12th December 2018, Sky’s parent company 21st Century Fox, announced that they would be ending their sponsorship of Team Sky at the end of the 2019-cycling season. Sky has sponsored the team since it was formed in 2010. It has been one of the most...
Paul Sherwen
On the 2nd December 2018, it was announced that the ‘Voice of Cycling’ Paul Sherwen had died of heart failure, aged 62, at his home in Kenya. Paul Sherwen was born on the 7th June 1956, just ‘down the road’ from me in Widnes, (Northwest England). He grew up in Kenya,...
Beyond the Deepening Shadow
BEYOND THE DEEPENING SHADOW: THE TOWER REMEMBERS; an epic light and sound display held at the Tower of London to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. The event filled the moat with thousands of individual flames: a public act of remembrance for the...
Kickstarter #2
In Feb 2012 a dock made for the iPhone designed by Casey Hopkins and became the first Kickstarter project to exceed one million dollars in pledges. A few hours later, a new adventure game project started by computer game developers, Double Fine Productions, reached...
The Debate – Helmets
Should the wearing of helmets be compulsory for cyclists…? The debate rages on, many newspaper column inches are written, pundits give their reasoned arguments and ‘experts’ mostly say it would be a ‘good thing’. Everybody who is anybody has an opinion. Whether you...
Tour de France 2018
The 2018 Tour de France was the 105th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tours. The 3,351 km (2,082 ml) long race consisted of 21 stages, starting on 7 July in Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, in western France, and finishing on 29 July with the...
Growing Old (Dis)Gracefully
The average duration of human life in the UK is just about 83 years for women and 79 years for men. Conservative experts believe that man is really build to last about 100 years; and that medical advances and a more healthy living style could bring this about three or...
Armchair Athletes
Well, it's started.... 4 weeks of boring television... 28 days of 'so-called' pundits pontificating on penalties and points, their words of wisdom on every television and radio channel... wall to wall supporters shouting and generally making a nuisance of...
Freedom Cycle System
A Favourite Brand - Freedom Cycle System: In the early days of the SpeedX saga, I came across the Freedom Cycle System on Kickstarter, the crowdfunding platform. It is an Australian project, launched by Tim Holmes and Steve Serpall. The Kickstarter campaign was...
Eddy Merckx #1
Eddy Merckx, a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer, who is among the most successful riders in the history of competitive cycling, was born on the 17th June 1945, and this month; May 2018, is the 40th Anniversary of his retirement from competitive...
Smart Trainer
Turbo Trainer – Elite Qubo Digital Smart B+ Having started back riding (in April 17) with a set of ‘dumb’ Rollers, by June, I was convinced that I needed something a bit more ‘realistic’, a Trainer that I could work with that would be capable of a full training plan....